20 zooes after that. all of the other bills did expect except the 500 sex till onschilling. that was the red her. the heightest denomination was 5,000. thanks for being part of my program. i el see you next week. stay tuned for reliable sources. when i was in denver watching the debate, it was clear that obamitt romney had t strongest points. -on-lacked energy and passion and that became the overwhelming narrative. >> no question this was mitt romney's night on style. >> it looked lielg romney wanted to be there and obama didn't want to be there. >> the challenger, mitt romney seemed more presidential than the president, more in command of miss facts, gums, principles. >> that was the frustration

wrchl was the president tonight. >> the other media exaggerating the extent of the president's loss and ignoring the candidate's half truths in the process. fox news hypes the conservative website video of barack obama as a rashlgly charged revelation. >> on the eve of the first prez denl chal debate the first bomb is about to d dropped for the 2012 presidential white house. >> it was covered at the time. a right wing commentators trying to portray their president as an angry black man. plus the other big debate, jon stewart versus bill o'reilly. >> income redistribution. do you believe in it? >> do you? >> no. i asked first. >> it's a complicated one. i believe in social security. do you? >> yes, absolutely. >> so we're both socialists. >> no, no. >> was this clash of titan television or was it shtick?

i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." i knew the media were absolutely pummeling barack obama after the debate when i watched the gang at msnbc. they savaged the president they usually defend, appearing angry, even appeared disgusted with his performance and especially chris mass use. >> i don't know what he was doing. he had his head down enduring it rather than fighting it. where was obama tonight. he e should watch -- not just hardball but you and lawrence. he should learn something about this debate. there's a hot debate. you know where it's being held? here, this debate. we have our knives out. we go after the people and the facts. what was he doing tonight? >> mitt romney won the debate, no question about it. but are the pundits casting obama as a horbling, no good, very bad night and are they --

joining us here now in washington, julie mason, host of the press pool on serious xf radio. terrance smith and david rucker. terry smith let's say he lost the debate. the media have made it sound like the biggest fiasco in debating. is that a bit over the top? >> of course, it's over the top. it's not a disaster. it with as flat night, not a good night obviously for the president. but i have to say news organizations and particularly my good friend chris matthews go into a meltdown when they're confronted with a surprise. it was a surprise. remember going in evan it is pated that obama would be quite in charge and romney would be struggling. so it was, of course, mainly style is tick, the failing, not substantive because going home after watching it, i listened to

it, c-span radio ran it again, and obama wasn't that bad. >> i want to pick up that point in a minute, but i also want to show our viewers how this kind goefrs into the culture. you see all the pundits saying the president was absolutely terrible. you see the clips played again and again and again and then it goes to place like "saturday night live." >> mr. president? i'm sorry. yeah, what's up. mr. president said he killed osama bin laden. would you care to respond? >> no. you two go ahead. >> david drucker, this kind of thing and the pundit makes it look offer. >> it was a night they didn't expect. actually obama at several times in his presidency, whether he was debating house republicans where he invited them as guests has proven, you know, quite

adept at discussing the issues and casting his policies in a very centrist light, even if they're liberal policies. >> but do you agree with my point that if you hear theed my media echo chamber and hear it over and over and even is how they remember it? >> how the media covers it is how people rehn the event. if you look at the presidential race it has been very influenced by how the media has portrayed various events. so how the media covers this will add -- i will add if several million people watch smlg it's hard either way for the media to have an influence on sending it in one direction if people saw it in another. >> i was in denver. i saw a different debate than most americans. we can put some of this up here. i didn't see the split screens an reaction shot whence the president was looking down auchbd and romney looked more energetic. we see that here. that, i think, with the focus on

the body of the debate changed the way you looked at. i was more focused on what they were saying. >> you're such a purist, listening to what they say. that's adorable. the other stuff, the body language, how they interact, what they call each other, all that feeds into it. "saturday night live" which i know you're interesting in it all feeds into this massive perception that it's a huge fail. >> i'm going to be old fashioned and hang on to that. warning, we're about to get into substance of an exchange between mitt romney and barack obama about the tax plan which obama characterized as being $5 trillion and not being fully paid for. let's watch. >> when you add all the loopholes an deductions that upper level individuals are taking advantage of, you don't come close to paying if for $5 trillion in tax cuts 257b8d

trillion in additional military spending. >> i will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals. i know you keep saying that but it's just not the case. giej ring bring the rate downs, lower exemptions and credits and so forth so we keep getting revenue we need. >> terry, i understand the focus of the theatre and the focus on big bird and things like that, but here you have mom who on the one hand has been backing way. he's not going to race what high income people pay but almost every independent study shows that he cannot pay for this through close deeg tukzs and loopholes and he hasn't said which deductions and loopholes he would close. why has there not been more media focus on this very central question? >> well, i think the fact checkers who really weighed in later and the next morning have brought that out. >> i agree with you on that and i would say the fact checkers are maybe 5% of the coverage.

they're off in this little corner and they do great job. but why the headline, the front page story, the top of the newscast not only dead with romney's tax cut, not so much if you look at the details. said he likes part of the dodd/frank banking law even though he's call about for its abolition. it seems to me when it comes to the substance, the press has somewhat fallen down on the job hereful tell me i'm wrong. >> no, i tend to agree with you. i saw stories the next day that say this is the mo real mitt, that he moved to the center, that this was really a significant thing and it was so reported. so i think it was covered. think you're talking mainly emphasis and was there enough emphasis on really disputable figures on both sides, i must say. they both fudged. >> and volumed. and just the pretty said 5 million jobs have been created during his tenure. that's a figure that does not hold water, and yet it seems to

me that the idea of fact checkers, if you ask people about it, how can they talk about the substance? >> it's ironic. it was one of the more sub stannive debates. i would say this. i don't like the idea of media fact ce fact-checkers. if we're supposed to report how can we be the referee. >> wait a minute. what if candidates get up there and lie and distort and exaggerate. >> if it's a lie as simple as the sky is brown and we all know it's blew, that's one thing. but there have been repeating studies, republicans trotting out democrat-based studies and democrats trotting out republican-based studies,

muddling oval yous and how to attack a problem that's ultimately up to the voters and it's really unclear whether either of these candidates is telling the truth or in a sense arguing were for something that can't be done -- >> here's fact that's not unclear. romney says that -- romney essentially has a cvent plan. he says when he unveils which deductions and loop hole his e ee going to close, then you will see that his tax plan won't increase the deficit. that in and of itself is a pretty central fact in this debate, but not, if you look at the media coverage. >> no, that's true. and i think the fact that we have fact checkers playing such an important role gives reporters pass. reporters are not good at math. that's not news. >> remedial math. >> that is definitely news. but they can cover the broader issues. they can cover other things. >> they want to cover the that it irof it and the poll and the momentum and the image making. >> that's what gets the hits on

the website, not a story about tax rates. >> it has to be the other candidate who goes after the distortions and the exaggerations and in this case the president did challenge it. >> right. >> and it became a yes it is, no it isn't. >> i agree with you. but in this case on the tax plan, not so much obama care and other things, it did. was it played in the clips? >> it was. >> very little. >> there was a misperception on the argument over taxes. if you watched mitt romney over the campaign, he has argue head will cut everyone's tack bus not change the shiefr the burden that the wealthy will pay. now, that may turn out to be true or not if he's ever elect and goes to congress with a plan. but he did not change his plan the night of the debate. what he tried to do finally in then tire campaign is rebut the very effective obama argument that he's cutting taxes for the

wealthy and sticking the middle class with a tab. it's not something the republicans believe is true. >> the key word was share, the share was taxes that the wealthy will pay. and so i was surprised the president didn't go after that too. >> is it simply that -- i've seen 20 times that. is it the other stuff, the stuff we're talking about here, the stuff that's considered too boring? >> yes, absolutely. yes. that sflies that depresses me. >> would that journalism were still the truth, it's not. it's a profit-driven industry. we're talking about big bird. >> and look what they were talking about the next day. big bird. >> big bird showing up at some of the rallies now. romney after the debate saying his commenting about the 47% of americans who don't pay federal income taxes, now he says that william completely wrong.

after two weeks of telling it he said it was inel accidentally spoken. how do you deal with that kind oofr zig-zag? >> first, you focus on it, put the spot light on the fact that he has exerted something to one audience and totally rejected it to the wider audience, and think if you do that and you do that sharply, you get the job done. >> this was the most politically tweet every, more than for the whole democratic convention than just those 90 minutes. how does that change the way they experience the dpee dee bait if they're on line and sharing? >> it does. i notice people paying much more attention to twitter than what was said on tv and following the debate through twitter rather than experiencing it as a television event. >> and also people were engaged on facebook and even on microsoft xbox. people who play on video games

could vote on certain questions but not a lot. >> finally. >> finally. it seems to me, who needs the media because people can broadcast their own opinions to whoever. >> this is one of the things social media has done, in fact, removed us as the sole gate keepers of foirn national flow. i think given a new life to presidential debates in general because so much of what is said,ablized and even seen is pushed out through twitter, through facebook, and it has the staying power that i don't know that it would have had four years ago, 8 years ago, 12 years ago. >> and it's shattered the media monopoly. >> don't lose sight of one thing. the most important thing that a candidate can accomplish in a debate is the impression he gives or she, gives to the audience nchl this case, it was is mitt romney presidential, quote/unquote. can he beseen as presidential. the answer, i think, in most of

the audience was yes. >> and the audience was sharing that on twitter as well. i think you're right. that impression is more important than the facts and figures, particularly with the economy being such a big issue. let's put up a new issue. mitt romney on the right side and nobody standing next to him. when we come back. piling on jim lehrer. covering more debates than anyone else in history. do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it.

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piling on jim lehrer. jim lehrer moderated his 12th debate but never more was there a stinging criticism that followed him in denver when he struggled to keep control of the proceedings. >> governor romney do you have a question you want to ask the president. >> the president began the last segment so i think i get the

last world. >> you eagle the first word in the next segment. >> let's. >> no, let's not. let's let him respond to this specific on dodd frank and what the governor just said. >> now, the last point i'd make. >> two minutes, two minutes is up. >> no, i think -- i had five seconds before you interrupted me, wu. >> terry smith. you work with jim lehrer, you know his style. what's your take on whether he lost control of that debate? >> well, you could say that. first of all jim is a friend and a colleague. i like that very much. he's a big boy. he can take the criticism. nighttime worried about him. i would say, more important than, that this was a new format, extremely complex format with six 15-minute segmented and two minutes at the top and it places a lot of time-keeping burden on the moderator and i think they may want to look at that going forward. the other thing is this is a

format those two candidates agreed to in advance and then ignored. i mean these are all considerations. what jim was trying to do was to get the two candidates to question each other and do an exchange. >> he said he had no apologiy i for the way he handled it. that his job was to stand out of the way and let them handle it. he said it's a new format people aren't used to. >> yeah. what a no-win situation. if he injelkted himself more, we would be sitting here thinking why did he make it all about himself. >> he cut off obama, he caught off romney. >> right. i think what he did was fine. i don't feel qualified to krit siechl his performance. that's a hard job. >> baked into the criticism it seems to me, david drucker, is the mode rater should tightly control the proceedings and

should driving the conversation and letter didnhrer didn't want it. >> what do we always talk about? how can you discuss in two minutes whienld don't they engage each other and fight it out? guess what? that's what they did. he introduced the topic. when they wanted to fight, he let them fight at one point obama said, wait a minute, can we stay on medicare? really, we want to cut that off? this is what we want. also i think baous f the 20-some-odd republican preds den chal prynary debates who we had moderators who did a good job would treat it almost as a quasi interview. here's your record and what you said, does anybody else want to pile on? i don't know that debated should be about that. >> on that point, julie, there were points i thought jim lehrer might follow up where he would say, you said this six months

ago and now you say this. if it was on the "newshour," that's what we would want. >> we want the moderator to almost con venn j, be in front, get in front of someone's face and say, liar. step back. it's much better for democracy really. >> here's a problem and i think bob schieffer who's going to moderate this third debate with the same format is going to have to think about this. there are moments where you can say -- le let ee says to mitt romney, you've said again and again you'll eliminate the deductions and loopholes. give us one or two examples. >> i agree with you. i wish he had done that. on the one hand he had a different philosophy. what was the result? you said it earlier. a pretty substantial debate. i want to discuss yo.

jim lehrer has been doing this for a lock, long time hchl e has a stellar reputation for fairness. what are the costs compared him to an nfl ref and things like that? >> i don't know. except that as long as done -- when you're in the limelight and you're in it for a long time, your head is above the trep. and you're going to be shot at. i don't think it's any more than that. >> i think it was a lot of democratic scapegoating. you heard from the democrats. he did a terrible job. >> you heard him saying, well, guess mitt romney was the moderator, not jim lehrer. >> then it's not the president's call, it becomes jim lehrer's fault. i've heard that from so many democrats. >> thank you very much for coming in. ahead on the "reliable sources," what it's like to be in the spin room on the denver presidential debate. is this an issue that should just be put to rest? [ engine revs ] i'll take it.

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when i walked into the car very news media filing room of denver, i had to ask myself, why did i fly to watch the debate with other journalists on tv? the chance is to work the spin room or spin alley on the other

side of the wall. why go through the ancient tradition? actually it turns out to be a fascinating exercise. the republicans were so excited by mitt romney's performance that rudy giuliani started declaring victory reporters while romney was still delivering his closing statement. soon there were ten romney boosters blitzing around the room. their enthusiasm was unmistakable. ten minutes passed before two democratics came about. they were subdue and almost robotic and while they were quick to krit siechl romney they didn't claim any quick victory for if the president because they couldn't. it was valuable to have a chance to question some of these folks. question, the transparent spin can make you dizzy just like they spew talking points on cable news.

those speaking if tr candidates was something no amount of spin could obscure. up next tucker and sean hannity with explosive new information about barack obama. was the five-year-old tape really news and jack welch acushion the obama team of cooking the books on the latest jobs fegs. really? ♪

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the drudge report painted as a. tucker unveiled it on fox news and sean hannity could barely contain his enthusiasm sniet contains some of the most divisive class warfare and racially charged rhetoric ever used by obama. this is what some biased journalist it. s have tried to hide for years. it's a glimpse in the mind of the real barack obama. >> the first thing that will jump off the screen for you is this guy's racing up race hatred and fear, period. >> what was it all about? the bizarre things barack obama delivered at a speech in front of cameras and television reporters.

>> we're not going to wait for you to scratch it together because you're part of the american family. what's happening down in new orleans? where's your dollar? where's your standardized money? makes no sense. tells me the bullet hasn't been taken out. tells me that people down in new orleans don't care about as much. >> while carlson had portions of the video that hadn't aired, the speech was covered earlier on cnn. >> barack obama suggesting there's a disconnect and a serious disconnect in the african-american community and he's invoking the memory of the deadly 1992 los angeles riots. >> senator obama today says the bush admin stray has done nothing to diffuse what he calls a quiet riot, a riot he suggests is ready to erupt.

>> so was this legitimate news in 2012. >> joining me now, dana milbank, columnist of "the washington post" and amy holmes. dana milbank, what did you make of this? >> i suppose if i had a marginal scoop i'd present as a sizzling hot scoop too. if you can get drudge go after it, all the better. you get many more clicks for that. but i think we reacted to this the way stock remarks to information. yeah, there was something marginally new but it didn't fundamentally change something we new about the president or the story. it wasn't really relevant at the moment. this week was all about debates and unemployment. it just didn't seem to fit in. yeah, it got out there. >> amy holmes, has obama's speech received moderate coverage at the time and this time around covered as a media story and disappeared. did this story fizzle? >> i think it did and it's

unfortunate. it fizzled because it was covered as a race war story or a media story instead of a promise story that senator obama is promising better treatment because of disparate treatment. historically has that come to pass. he's made some very bold claims as you pointed out that new orleans got less favorable treatment than new york. it turns out some fact-checkers said that wasn't true. but meanwhile he's been president for four years whach has he done to wreckty file that situation? has he worked with governor jindal? how did this all play out and unfortunately the media is not asking those questions. >> i talked to tucker carlson of "newsweek" this week. he said some of the reaction in the press was disgust and reflects t reflects a larger problem in the press, the initial impulse of

many in the press is to suck up to power. find that contemptible. >> a heckler started heck ling president obama. he said if you're not shouting at the office, therefore you're too soft on power. why this wasn't played more, no, it's not because anybody's protecting barack obama. truth be told, i think we in the media would like to see more of a race. we'd like to see more of a race than there is already. if there is something to work with here, it would have been done. there just wasn't enough to do a big story on. >> howie, i think there's something else at play here, the media is very often rather shy of holding black politicians to the same zarnds when it comes to these campaign promises in front of black audience. i believe black voters and that audience deserve the same truth in advertising as any other candidate and this president is

not being held to that standard. >> okay. will it me move on to another controversy that seemed to emanate on the other side. ordinarily jobless figures come out. bureau of labor statistics, no a big deal. this week when we heard the rate dropped from 8% to 7.8%. you have jack welch who euned to own nbc, the majority owner. he said this is unbelievable. the chicago guys will do anything to change the numbers. let's take a look at welch mareking his roumts and some at fox news picking up on the idea that they can't be trusted. >> look. i don't know what the right number is, but i'll tell you these numbers don't smell right when you think about where the economy is right now. >> there is widespread mistrust because there are contradictions. >> some report there are numbers that will come out on the eve of the election.

>> you know, these are volatile figures and sometimes have to be revised. but to go and charge that the administration had manipulated this for political gain, don't you need some evidence for that? >> think it's unfortunate that jack welch who has this storied business career now appears to be stark raving mad in the donald trump category and i think this reaction is what it should have been even from a lot of people on the right and said, now, come on, you can argue about certain things but if they wanted to cook the books they should have been doing it a long timing a. it's not like this is such a terrific jobs report naichlt it's pretty lousy out there. if you're going to being cooing books, you can do better than that. >> jack welch said may he should have put a question mark in his tweet. amy, does this seem to you to be a bit of a loony controversy? >> well, you know, this is jack welch's apparent numbers. the there are contradictory numbers. you look at the durable

manufacturing numbers, but if you look at my show we could look at ask households their labor participation and you ask businesses and there are drirchss in these rates. but the department of labor is very protective of these numbers. universities, and others. it's unlikely the books were cooksed. who wassing down this? i was surprised to see them pecking up on this. let me come backing to the presidential debasement i made mention this was fact-checking of the debate but the total volume of the coverage was not about that. there were fact-checks repeatedly on cnn, some aft "the washington post," some at "the new york times." but what do you think of the notion that while the fact-checking admirable the lead story is not about whether those claims are true north. >> i thank's right for the debate. one is it's so late at night

there's not a lot of time to sit back and go through the archives to figure out what's right. the other thing that i think was going on, wi us out there in denver as you were. you know what was up on everybody's reporter screen? twitter. they were actually having a conversation with themselves on twitter. it accentuated it and essentially there was a group think going on that the this is a really big bad thing for obama and i think we probably did our readers and viewers a disservice. >> a group think, amy holmes? >> it wouldn't be surprising. i'm surprised they were look at twitters more than the people on stage. they deserve more than 140 characters per tweet. they're expected to talk about what they receive.

>> i was only looking at amy's website. >> let me ask you about something you wrote in this morning's "washington post" column. you said one of the reasons he was rusty is hi's stepped back from the media. >> if you look back, not just me but all of us, most presidents if not all incumbents tends to have problems in their first deba debate. nobody has said, mr. president, you're full of it. he doesn't like to mix it up with reporters. if nobody's challenging you, making you beon your toes to defend yourself, you're out of practice, those muscle atrophy and i think we saw signs of that. >> do you think that's factor amy? >> it could be. all we know is the president obama who showed ouptown debate stage was a rather different, ratherer lit fls limp guy than

we're used to. why did he turn in this type of performance? we saw bob woodward suggested there was a personal crisis or there was a pretty crisis. all of this is pure speculation. wi don't know if we'll fw tote the truth of the matter. >> dana says he should just talk to us more. amy holmes and dan na mill bank. thanks very much. the o'debate, fake anchor and real ape core. we'll have a report cart on jon stewart and bill o'reilly. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese

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have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. forget about barack obama and mitt romney. there was another smack down. a pay-per-view for charity. i'm talking, of course, about the debate between jon stewart and bill oh riley? i think that fox news is an overreaction to what may be a patina of people that believe in -- in other words i don't think abc and nbc and cbs are activist organizations for liberal causes. i think fox looks at those organizations and they're sort of an autoimmune disease against

that. >> i see you make more than a billion dollars a year. >> what were these television talkers trying to accomplish? joining me here, are you going go out on a limb and declare a winner? >> this sounds like a copout but i think they both came out ahead. they both, think, very much held their own and proved that they're very good at this. >> this was very heavily promoted. >> yes. >> did it live up to the hype? when they were standing up at the podiums, it felt a little strange to me. i didn't think either one of them held up like they do in their program sthoos they like each other, so they're not out to ruin each other's reputation, but the reality is it's ral rather fairly substantive might be the wrong word but serious. >> if you came in looking for a lot of laughs, you might -- >> they were a little funny,

stewart adjusting the height of his seat. i had the same reaction. for the first 15, 30 minutes i kept expecting them to make wisecracks, and they didn't. >> maybe they're they'll take i road. which is part of the point. we can do this if we can agree or disagree agreeably, there's no excuse for anybody else. >> jon stewart talked about fox news and others being part of an alternate reality. there were hard punches thrown. jon stewart you recall had the big rally for moderation on the mall. one of the reasons he wants to do something like this because at this point in his career he doesn't just want to be an entertainer, that he wants to seriously impact the political debate? >> he always sort of has these two, one the comedian, and when he wants to be taken seriously has that cut. he has defense of both roles. his point is bill o'reilly's point. they want to make the point if

you come about your views genuinely, believe in them, honest about them, smart about them and if you have a sense of humor, you can poke fun at yourself, this kind of dialogue can happen. you saw that last night, two people very much disagree, but the nice was pleasant. you don't see it a lot on cable news and they talked about that. that's the primary goal to say if we can do it, you can do it. >> what does bill o'reilly get out of it, he is a hard driving interviewer, pushing his point of view, not always a conservative point of view. certainly was being more critical of barack obama than mitt romney. what does he get out of hanging out with stewart? >> i think old age is softening him. it would kill him to hear that. when he was at -- started fox news, he was billed as the poster child for harsh cable, talks loud, aggressiveness, all things he would agree with. the reality is he is trying to, talks about it in interviews, carve out this spot where he says i don't hate the president, i don't like what a lot of these people on my network and other

networks do when it is venom and hatred. that was one of his points last night. this is being forced by people making money, being unnecessarily harsh against politicians of both sides. he is oddly enough more in the middle than ten years ago. >> wouldn't some disagree say o'reilly can talk over his guests, he is part of the coarse ening of the discourse? you say less so. >> totally. he still has his enemies and detractors. the fact that one, he is willing to do what he did last night, this has been an on-going back and forth. >> you see a kinder, gentler bill o'reilly? >> i do. i think part of it is he is kinder and gentler. part of the other reason is the spectrum changed. where he may have been an outliar, there are people to the right and left that are more harsh and in your face that he looks more reasonable. he talks about that, says i am not as bad as the other guys any more. >> jon stewart likes to go after everybody on "the daily show"

particularly fox news, a little less antagonistic with bill o'reilly. thanks for stopping by. still to come, gma blurs the line between journalism and politics. the weather channel stirs up a storm. and the female anchor that dared take on a weighty issue. the media monitor straight ahead. but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a decongestant. no way. [ male announcer ] sorry. alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. thanks. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! [ male announcer ] try new alka-seltzer plus severe allergy to treat allergy symptoms plus sinus congestion and pain. bp has paid overthe people of bp twenty-threeitment to the gulf. billion dollarse allergy to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years.

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time now for the media monitor, our weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. as ann mitt romney made the tv rounds, she came across as very genuine. one chair she should not be sitting in is co-host at good morning america. the potential future first lady will fill in for robin roberts and this is not to mince words, a stunt. they had sarah palin co-host well after she ran for vice president. gma is in talks to have michelle obama co-host. they're totally focused on getting their husbands elected president. they should be interviewed by all means, but that seat should be reserved for journalists. have oprah or stephen colbert, but ann shouldn't be next to

george stephanopoulos. they don't need to do this to get attention. the weather channel caused turbulence by announcing it will name big winter storms like hurricanes. the official reason is to make it easier to communicate the threat from storms as they develop, but it smells like a gimmick. especially with a list of names ranging from brutus to caesar to zeus. they say the criteria how storms get named could confuse people or could serve as a branding exercise for the weather channel. and jennifer livingston gained some fame, anchor in lacrosse, wisconsin, ticked off by an e-mail from a viewer saying her ample frame did not provide a suitable example for young girls. i will hope you will reconsider your responsibility as local personality to present and promote a healthy life-style.

livingston responded on air. >> the truth is i am overweight, but to the person that wrote me that letter, do you think i don't know that? that your cruel words are pointing out something that i don't see? you don't know me, so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside. and i am much more than a number on a scale. and i leave you with this. to all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your weight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face, listen to me right now. do not let your self worth be defined by bullies. >> good for her. my only qualm is while the viewers letter was out of line, it wasn't bullying in tone. maybe jennifer was looking for opportunity to speak out, not just against those hypercritical of women's weight but the motion all female anchors have to be thin. that can't have been easy, but i'm glad someone sai